Foothills Environmental Evaluation Underway
As part of the City’s pause for evaluation, SWCA was the first of three professional consultants hired to conduct analysis of the Foothills Trails Plan. SWCA's work will include an environmental assessment (cultural, land, plant and wildlife, scenic impacts) of Phase I construction, trail corridors, and sensitive areas in the rest of the Foothills proposed for future phases. They have been busy conducting visual analysis of the current and potential impact on the viewshed (how the Foothills will be seen) for evaluation and will be creating draft imagery. They have also been working with Salt Lake City staff to effectively communicate with tribal leaders to discuss the Foothills’ cultural significance and sacred sites. They will begin their stakeholder engagement with science-based stakeholder groups later this month, which should continue through June 2022.
Foothills Trail System Plan and Phase I Construction Evaluation RFP
As announced in recent updates, Public Lands published a Request For Proposal (RFP) to hire a Trail Design and Land Conservation specialist. The RFP submissions were due in January 2022, but there was consensus from the selection committee that the RFP and the proposals received did not adequately represent the evolving needs based on unforeseen factors and an expanded scope of work. Salt Lake City Public Lands has canceled this first RFP and has rewritten a new RFP to update the desired specifications and scope of work to include a deeper evaluation of the Trails Plan itself and add the creation of an addendum to the Trails Plan that will include a trail maintenance plan and updated alignment recommendations. This will provide the City with the evaluation, recommendations, and documentation that will be pertinent for the responsible and sustainable management of the Foothills Natural Area. We expect to issue a new RFP by April 2022 and anticipate this work to continue through 2022 and be completed in the spring of 2023.
